The Engineering Windows 7 blog has launched today. Its authors are Steven …

Microsoft has thus far been very tight-lipped on Windows 7; everything that we know about Vista's successor—which is very, very little—has been carefully disclosed to us by Microsoft. The software giant has already been heavily criticized for not having any public channels of communication open. Even Microsoft's own partners have complained that the company isn't telling them much, and they're the ones that really have to know the details so they can align their products accordingly. Anyway, it seems that the stance over at Microsoft is changing, but very slowly: the Engineering Windows 7 blog (E7 for short) is now live.

E7 has two authors, both of whom are senior engineering managers for Windows 7. Steven Sinofsky is in charge of the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, and Jon DeVaan heads the Windows Core Operating System Division. Other members of the Windows 7 engineering team will also post, comment, and participate on the blog.

There are currently only two blog entries on E7, both of them from today: one talks about proper behavior on the blog, and the other introduces what the blog is dedicated to (users who love Windows). This blog doesn't appear to be the Windows 7 blog that the new Windows 7 Public Relations Manager will be heading, but it definitely shows that Microsoft is starting to listen to critics about the lack of Windows 7 info.

Update

I just wanted to note that Microsoft watchers Mary Jo Foley and Ed Bott have slightly different takes on the launch of the E7 blog.